Middle Egypt
by alayneni
Summary: The project team from Wayne Enterprises arrives in Star City and Felicity discovers that the Project Lead is someone she went to school with as well. Part 4 of the High School History Series.


**_Middle Egypt_**

 **An:** I do not own Arrow. Part 4 of the High School History Series. Thanks to my lovely beta missmeagan666 at Ao3.

 **Summary:** The project team from Wayne Enterprises arrives in Star City and Felicity discovers that the Project Lead is someone she went to school with as well.

* * *

A thirteen year old Felicity Smoak was cooped up in the library reading a book about the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt. Felicity had been skipped up a grade. Her current classmates didn't like her, calling her a nerd and reminding her that despite her genius she was still the daughter of a cocktail waitress and she would never amount to anything.

Her only remaining friend, Paige, from her original class came looking for her in the library.

"Felicity," she whispered.

"What?" Felicity responded annoyed to be disturbed from reading about Ramses the Wise.

"The game is about to start. We should be on the bleachers not reading things about Egypt that you are never going to use," Paige said.

"No you should be on the bleachers ogling at the quarterbacks. I should stay right where I am. You never know when knowledge about ancient Pharaohs might come in handy."

"Come on, Dusty's playing. I know you have a crush on him. We need to be there. The visiting quarterback is so cute. Wouldn't it be nice to get a boyfriend?"

Felicity rolled her eyes at her friend.

"I know who I am. I'm Felicity Smoak certified genius. I don't define myself by my boyfriend status. I'm never going to be that girl that has the great looking guy with the six-pack on her arm. I'm quite fine as I am. And if by some slim chance I do choose to have a boyfriend, he's probably going to be a super genius like me, I much rather the intellectual stimulation."

Paige laughed, "I don't think so. You like to think you're that different Felicity but you're still a girl with feelings like the rest of us and one day you will fall in love."

* * *

Felicity stared out the window of her office. They were meeting with project team from Wayne Enterprises today. One name struck out to her, Paige Matherson, the Senior Project Manager on the team. She had gone to highschool with her.

They were in the same class until Felicity got skipped ahead a grade. They had managed to stay friends but when Felicity got skipped again nothing in their schedules lined up and they drifted apart. She hadn't thought about Paige since she was thirteen.

"Stop thinking about your old high school friend," Oliver said to his wife.

She bit her bottom lip as she looked at him.

"Excuse me Queens," Jerry's voice said over the intercom on Felicity phone, "the project team from Wayne Enterprises has arrived and is being seated in the conference room."

She reached forward and switched her end on, "Thanks Jerry we'll be with them in a minute."

She looked up at her husband, "Are you sure you want to sit in on this? It's going to be a lot of technical details."

"It's a huge project. I should be there," he told her.

"You know it's funny. I went to school in Las Vegas but I keep bouncing into people I went to school with. You went to school here in Star City and with the exception of Laurel and Milton, who we met out of town, we don't bump into anyone you went to school with,"

"I guess your classmates were more ambitious than mine."

"I doubt that. I still think it's strange. When I left Las Vegas I never planned on running into anyone I went to school with. These days it seems hard to avoid them."

Oliver's hand slipped into hers and he pulled her up into his arms.

"We can't keep our guests waiting long."

"No we can't. I guess the sooner we start the sooner we can finish and I can go home and relax in the hot tub," Felicity said.

"If you're a good girl I might even give you a foot massage."

"Oh I'll definitely be good," Felicity responded.

* * *

After a quick round of introductions, the project team began working on the details of the partnership and how the QI technology was going to be incorporated into the Wayne Enterprises' plan. After lunch, Felicity jumped up and ran out of the room. She returned a few minutes later to find that everyone but her husband looked concerned.

"Are you ok?" Paige asked her.

"Sorry, just morning sickness, which doesn't only happen in the morning so I don't know why it's called morning sickness, it should just be call pregnancy sickness or something. It's so misleading, especially when this is your first time and you're expecting to only have rough mornings and perfect afternoons."

At the blank stares everyone was giving her, Felicity apologised for her babble.

Oliver and her had agreed that they would tell the project team that she was expecting. Some aspects of the project would need to be planned around her pregnancy. Meetings in her eighth month would have to be held in Star City. She was also taking at least a full 3 months maternity leave so that needed to be factored into the planning. They were going to suggest that one of their employees Dr. Curtis Holt take over her responsibilities on the project until she returned.

"Congratulations, how far along are you?" another member of the team asked.

"3 months, the bump is barely there," Felicity said happily.

"Now I understand why your husband's been hovering," Paige commented.

"Oh he does that all the time," Felicity said while Oliver gave her an incredulous look.

* * *

At the end of the day the team was tired and ready for a break.

"It's been a good first day. We accomplished a lot and I'm glad that Wayne Enterprises and QI could work so closely on a project that will benefit millions. QI has arranged some entertainment for you tonight. My sister, Thea Harper will be showing you around Star City," Oliver said muttering his first real words that were project related since they started.

Felicity hadn't been kidding when she said it was going to be a very technical meeting.

A lot of it flew over his head but he was still happy that he had sat in. The project team had agreed to make The Glades the first community to benefit from the energy project.

"You won't be joining us?" a member of the team queried.

"No, my wife and I will retire early tonight for obvious reasons," he said. They had discovered that in order for her to function properly at the Arrow lair now she needed to take a little rest between her day job and her night job.

"Tomorrow then," the team said as they began to filter out.

Paige stayed back a bit walking over to Felicity, "I was hoping to catch up. We didn't get any time during the day to really talk."

"Me too," Felicity replied honestly. She did genuinely want to talk more to Paige.

"We could just do dinner," the other woman suggested.

"That's a great idea! I'll send a driver to pick you up at the hotel. Is 7:30pm ok?"

"Yeah, that's great," Paige said.

* * *

At eight o'clock the doorbell rang and Felicity made her way from putting her finishing touches on the dining room table to the front door. Paige stood there dressed immaculately for dinner along with Diggle, Lyla and Sara. Felicity had decided since they were cooking a fancy dinner she would invite John and his family over as well.

She welcomed them in and took them towards the living room offering drinks to start off their night. "When I suggested dinner, I didn't mean you had to go through this much trouble," Paige said. "Nonsense, Oliver loves to cook and it just gave us another excuse to invite John over so we could play with Sara."

"Gee, it's nice to know we were only invited because of our daughter," Diggle dead panned.

"It's strange to see CEOs so close to their head of your security," Paige commented.

"John is more than an employee, he's family," Felicity said fondly.

Moving the conversation away from him, Diggle took the opportunity to find out a bit more about Felicity's early days, "I understand you went to school with Felicity?"

"Yes, I did, back when she was still a brunette. We were close for a while but when Felicity skipped grades ahead, it was hard to keep up." Paige answered.

"Hey!" Oliver's voice drifted from the kitchen, "No highschool stories until I'm there!"

"Don't worry Oliver we'll tell you the good stuff," Lyla called out to him.

Paige gave them the story of the day she first met Felicity, a girl with glasses and her head buried in a very thick book. Neither John nor Lyla seemed surprised by anything she said.

They were interrupted when Oliver declared that dinner was ready. Felicity escorted everyone to the table where Oliver was waiting with a bottle of wine.

"The table's beautiful," Paige said.

"Thank you. It's the only thing I'm allowed to prepare," Felicity revealed.

"Yes you want to keep this one far away from the kitchen," Lyla teased.

* * *

Their meal was perfect and the conversation was light. Felicity learned a lot about what Paige did after she graduated high school. Her friend hadn't been sure what she wanted to do and went to the local community college where she took a few broad classes.

Eventually she discovered she liked management. After getting her MBA and then specialising in Project Management, she got a lucky break at Wayne Enterprises where she impressed Lucius Fox with her skills. She was young to be a Senior Project Manager but she had proven her abilities and they had rewarded her with more challenging projects.

"Oh by the way, did your knowledge of ancient Egypt ever come in handy?" Paige asked her.

"As a matter of fact I did use it one time," Felicity said.

She could see the proud smile Oliver had on his face.

"Felicity's broad range of knowledge always comes in handy," Oliver said supporting his wife.

"I think our current situations are very ironic Felicity.

I was always the one that wanted the gorgeous loaded boyfriend and you were the one that was willing to do it alone. Here it turns out, you're the one that's married to the perfect man and I'm the one that's happy being single. Everyone in school thought you would end up with some scrawny brainy guy with a pocket protector.

Even you admitted that if you did settle it would be with another genius not the popular guy."

Felicity saw a shift in her husband's mood. She knew he was still a bit insecure about her choosing him over all the other men in her life. He still twitched when Ray came around.

"Oliver's not perfect, he has his flaws but he is perfect for me. I cannot imagine being with anyone else," she said while she looked deeply into her husband's blue eyes.

She squeezed his hand to emphasize her point.

* * *

After saying goodbye to their guests, Felicity walked back into the kitchen to find Oliver quietly rinsing the dishes before placing them in the washer. She knew from his posture and the tension in his shoulders that he was brooding. She knew exactly what he's brooding about.

She walked up to him and wrapped her hands around his midsection. In another two months she probably would not be able to do that. She rested her head against his back.

"I thought I said you weren't allowed to do this?"

She heard his acknowledgement grunt and felt the vibrations through his back.

She sighed; it was time to go through the talk again. She placed her hands flat on his abs.

"Oliver," she said seriously, "this physical package, it's just the cherry on top the cake for me.

These abs," she said as tenderly strokes the muscle group before spinning him around to face her, "these beautiful blue eyes that I get lost in, the jaw line I like to kiss, the stubble that tickles me, if they were all that I was interested in I would have thrown myself at you from the moment you put that bullet riddled laptop on my desk but I didn't. "

She placed her hand in her favourite position on his chest, directly over his heart, "I fell in love with the man inside. I love the man that you are, the corporate executive, the vigilante, the husband, the brother and the soon to be father. The physical package and monetary assets are just a bonus. You lost your company and I was still here. I'm not going anywhere Oliver."

"I still don't know what I did to deserve you, to deserve you choosing me every day," Oliver admitted. "It doesn't matter Oliver, all that matters is that we are here, every day," she said reaching up on her tiptoes to kiss him.

He reached behind him to flick off the tap before he scooped his wife up and carried her to bed.

The next morning, while Oliver held Felicity in his arms, he reflected that neither of them were where they thought they would be when they were in high school and he realised that that was not a bad thing, especially since it meant that they were together.

They had both grown and changed for the better. As Felicity once told him, they found themselves in each other and he would have it no other way.

* * *

 **An:** Thanks for reading. Part 5 is titled _Reunion_.


End file.
